Kabul, Sep 26 (IANS) Units of counter-narcotics police have discovered and destroyed a heroin-producing factory in northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province, provincial police spokesman Ehsanullah Kamgar said on Thursday.

After spotting the heroin lab in the Qawat Ali village of Darayim district, police raided the area late Wednesday night, smashed the plant, and arrested five persons on the spot, the official asserted.

Without providing more details, the official warned of dire consequences if anyone violates the law to produce or smuggle illicit drugs, Xinhua news agency reported.

In a similar drive against illegal drugs, personnel of counter-narcotics police destroyed 137 acres of hashish farm in Baghlan province a couple of days ago.

The Afghan caretaker government banned the cultivation of illegal crops, including poppy and hashish, drug processing and drug trafficking in April 2022. Since then, the administration has been fighting to get the once-poppy growing Afghanistan rid of the drug menace.